Yak Yak Part 3: Design Narratives

In Part 1 you were introduced to Operation Mercy and their yarn and clothing company called Yak Yak. In Part 2 you joined us on our field trip to local yarn shops to get a feel for the marketplace. In part 3 we’ll begin narrowing the scope of the project by developing 3 concepts, mood boards, and design narratives.

I have since met many designers who use mood boards in their process, but I first saw them being used by my friends in the fashion industry. The concept is simple – make a collage using found imagery to quickly illustrate the style, or “mood”, to which you are pursuing. Anything is up for grabs; photos, color swatches, illustrations, even other brands and logos (if you think that looking at other other brands in the design process is getting too close to other designer’s work, click here to read why we do it). I have seen some pretty crazy fashion mood boards that use pieces of metal, wax rubbings, polaroids, and even sticks. They can contain any materials that give a hint as to where the designer is trying to go.

Mood boards are developed within the framework of concepts. The idea with the concepts is to explore 3 aspects of Yak Yak that differentiate them in their market (we find that 3 gives us the broadest range of directions while still keeping a realistic scope on the project, but it really could be any number). For each concept we develop a design narrative taking what is visually presented on the mood board and translate it into words. For us, all of this builds a foundation for the actual design and helps our clients understand where we are going before we start anything. Here are the 3 concepts developed for Yak Yak:

Concept 1 : Humanitarian / Fair Trade

With very few of the Pamiri people making a living wage, Yak Yak’s goal is to create fair paying jobs for families. Concept 1 speaks to the humanitarian nature of Operation Mercy’s mission in Tajikistan. Because of this, concept 1 emphasizes photography to keep the customer engaged in the story of the people that produce the yarn and garments. The simple, yet extremely elegant type treatments keep the brand high end, while allowing the photographs and ‘story’ to take the main stage. The ‘do good’ message will become one of the primary focuses of the packaging, and one of the primary reasons to buy the product.

Concept 2 : High End Boutique

Concept 2 emphasizes the high-end aspect of this luxury good. It exemplifies its appeal as a competitor to fine yarns such as cashmere. Primarily used as an embellishment, yak yarn is desirable to the knitter looking for a unique and rare fiber. At first glance this may look like your standard embellishment. Upon further inspection you will notice that the curls and swirls are actually composed of yarn fiber. This plays on the idea that Yak Yak yarn will be used for high style embellishments and garnishing.

Concept 3 : Quirky / High End Hipster Crowd

Concept 3 is targeted at the ‘hipster knitter’ – thirty-somethings who are in it for the craft and unique aesthetic of hand-made goods. This client recognizes quality and wants a specialty yarn for it’s rarity. Mid-century modern designers such as Alexander Girard lend their graphic folk-art style to classic Pamiri pattern and color while elements of hand-lettered type speak to the high-end nature of the product by promoting it’s ultimate uniqueness and personality.

Feedback

The narratives are vague, I know, but that’s intentional. The purpose of this exercise is to attempt to give the folks at Yak Yak a sense of where we are going before we really go anywhere. Some clients really get into this part of the process, while it may not mean much to others – either way is OK. The idea is to build a design process that involves the client early on. We want to confirm that a direction is good or shoot it down quickly to get it out of the way.

Once we have feedback from Yak Yak we will finally get to the part we all love. Continue on.